With the retail release of the iPad just a day away, Marvel has released their branded comic reader on the iPhone/iPod Touch, and given a few glimpses as to what the program will look like on the iPad.

The new app comes complete with a tutorial and a handful of free comics (Runaways #1 for the win), and for those of you who’ve used the PSP’s comic reader, the actual comics seem to read almost identically. At least on the iPhone anyway. Just for kicks, I had one of the guys in the office here download the app so I could see how the interface would work. It’s pretty clean, and very easy to use, but there’s one glaring problem. You can’t view two pages at once, even in landscape view. That means no splash pages the way they were meant to be seen. The reader on the iPhone is defaulted to run one panel at a time, and that works for the smaller screen (like it does on the PSP), but from what I’ve seen thus far from other impressions of the iPad, you’ll still be restricted to one page at a time.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of this app is a little “Buy in Print” button on the individual comic page. The iPhone then searches the local area for comic shops where you can buy an actual physical copy of the comic you’re currently enjoying in digital form. As great as digital comics are as a tool for getting more people interested in the medium, I’m glad that Marvel is at least still promoting the fact that physical copies exist, and are worth tracking down. I’m curious to see how the reader looks on the bigger screen of the iPad, and will be sure to get you guys a hands-on early next week of the iPad version of the Marvel Comics app.

In the meantime, check out the complete press release below.

Marvel Entertainment is proud to announce the launch of the Marvel Comics App for iPad on the App Store. This landmark app launches with over 500 of Marvel’s greatest comic books, from classic stories to modern tales, featuring Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor and more of the world’s most popular Super Heroes. The Marvel Comics App brings the world of Marvel to iPad owners with each comic presented at incredibly high resolution possible on iPad’s full color screen, a user-friendly search engine, innovative viewing options and more.

“We’re excited to introduce an unparalleled digital comic experience to our fans with the Marvel Comics App for iPad,” said Dan Buckley, publisher & CEO, Marvel Publishing. “The iPad is the first device that offers us a chance to present digital comics that are even close to replicating the experience of reading a print comic. This new world of digital comics distribution provides us great opportunities to reach new readers, allow consumers to sample our diverse stories and characters, and we believe it will drive these new fans into the App Store and local comic shops each week to find even more.”

Fans will be granted unrivaled access to Marvel’s rich library of comics, with launch titles ranging from the first appearances of characters such as Spider-Man and the X-Men to modern classics like the debut of Red Hulk, Jonathan Hickman’s acclaimed Fantastic Four run, Joss Whedon & John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men and lots more. Every comic available through the Marvel Comics App is optimized for the iPad through painstaking re-coloring and re-digitizing of select content.

Marvel worked with ComiXology to create the perfect app for new readers, offering the option to preview three pages from each available comic before purchasing and a cutting edge recommendation engine for every fan to find a comic they’re sure to love. The app also arms fans with a handy comic shop locator, allowing them to find their local retailer’s address and phone number and then journey even further into the Marvel Universe. To further enhance the mobile reading experience on the iPad, the Marvel Comics App features multiple viewing modes, taking readers panel-by-panel through the comic book in a smooth, action-packed progression using just the swipe of a finger.

The Marvel Comics App for iPad is available for free from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore/. Individual comics are priced at just $1.99 each with new content arriving every week.

To commemorate this historic event, Marvel is offering select titles free for a limited time, such as New Avengers #1, which launched a new era for super hero comics; Captain America #1, Invincible Iron Man #1 & Thor #1, the perfect place for new readers to discover the titular heroes; and Super Hero Squad #1, suited for fans of all ages, especially our youngest ones.

The Marvel Comics App is also available for iPhone and iPod touch. For all the details on Marvel’s historic announcement and a closer look at the Marvel Comics App, please visit www.marvel.com/iPad.